For the past three months of 2016, media appearances by NSW senator Sam Dastyari were rarer than Elvis sightings.
But Senator Dastyari seems to have survived the donations furore and media storm that pushed him out of shadow cabinet; he's returned with a self-produced video featuring him as Elvis.
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The Labor senator posted a video to Facebook about his recent self-funded trip to the Parkes Elvis Festival. Video courtesy: Sam Dastyari.
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Sam Dastyari returns as 'Halal Elvis'
The Labor senator posted a video to Facebook about his recent self-funded trip to the Parkes Elvis Festival. Video courtesy: Sam Dastyari.
The NSW senator travelled to Parkes for the town's annual celebration of Elvis Presley that features regularly in television news bulletins about this time of year and nearly triples the population of the central NSW town of 11,000.
The self-mocking video has Senator Dastyari in a white jump suit and oversized sunglasses marching in the festival's centrepiece street parade alongside hundreds of the Elvis impersonators who flock to the town.
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And the senator, whose rich dark mane has inspired "Hair Force One" puns, makes a passable likeness of a young Elvis, in the days before he was acquainted with Dr Nick and so many fried peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches.
"I didn't need a wig," Senator Dastyari said.
Parkes mid-festival is the sort of place where many authentic-looking latter-era Elvises can be found slumped over the counter of any one of the town's nine pubs.
But Senator Dastyari, a non-practicing Muslim who emigrated from Iran as a young child, stood out by casting himself as "Halal Elvis", a funny gimmick but which also reflected what he said was a more serious reason for his trip.
"Some of the highest One Nation Senate vote totals of anywhere in NSW were recorded in Parkes," he said. "But in inner-city booths like Annandale they had almost no votes.
"What I really worry about is where the Americans head where you have 90 per cent Democratic vote in places like San Francisco and the reverse in country towns."
Senator Dastyari said he was well received and was convinced that voters were drawn more by the way the right-wing minor party communicated to regional voters and the attention they paid them rather than opposition to multiculturalism.
The senator was forced to resign from shadow cabinet in September after it was revealed a Chinese donor picked up a $1600 bill for a staff member's extra spending on an overseas trip.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten predicted the former general secretary of the party's NSW branch would soon be back in public life.
As part of that return, he has been elected Labor's deputy whip and has signed a deal with Melbourne University Press for a book with the working title Snack Packs, Villages and Senate Inquiries.
Senator Dastyari travelled to Parkes at his own expense.